addition to
their customers. This, of course, took time, and to men with empty
stomachs the hours seemed like days. Women come to the fence that
surrounded our camp, with pies, cakes, biscuits and other provisions to
sell, and done a thriving business while provisions lasted; but the stock
was soon sold out, and yet only a few had been fed. They only had to come
to the fence with what they had to sell, and it was bought at whatever
price was placed upon it.

I had just bought some bread of one of these venders, when Lieutenant H.
Lee Clark, 2d Massachusetts H. A., came up and asked a woman the price of
a pie, which she told him was five dollars; he handed her the five
dollars, and was reaching through the fence for the pie, when one of the
guard that had been placed in the camp, gave him a bayonet thrust in the
back, without a word of warning or an order to fall back. It was a
terrible thrust and made a wound three-fourths of an inch wide and one and
a half inches deep, near the spine. A number of us saw it and watched for
this fellow to come on guard again that night, but fortunately for him and
perhaps for us, he was relieved and did not again make his appearance. If
he had, we had determined to settle him quietly with a stone. An old
wooden freight house formed the west boundary of our camp, and under it
was stored a quantity of bacon. A number of hams were fished out by means
of a hook attached to a long pole, and some even crawled under it to get
their rations. Finally about dark, rations of white bread, warm from the
ovens, were served and this, with the stolen bacon, made us a good hearty
supper.

About this time a terrible rain storm came up, accompanied by a cold
northwest wind, which caused intense suffering to those who had no
shelter; and as none had any except such as could be made with blankets,
nearly all were all that night exposed to one of the worst storms I ever
experienced. As was my custom on going into camp, the first thing I did
was to gather some boards and improvise a tent from our blankets, using
some for a floor on which to place our mattress. This afforded but slight
protection from such a terrible storm of wind and rain as that night swept
down upon us, but over one thousand of the twelve hundred officers were
destitute of even this slight protection, and many were suffering from
wounds and disease. To those it was a night of terrible suffering such as
few ever experienced before or since.